Here's how these two startups - Petoo & Social Cops - are using big data to make the world a better place.

Social Cops

Last year, SocialCops, a data technology startup backed by Google's Rajan Anandan, collected micro-level street sanitation data from citizens in Delhi. They used it to rate areas on cleanliness and create performance incentives for safai karamcharis. Following this, performance improved and there was a boost in attendance rate. Says co-founder Prukalpa Sankar, "We're a data company with a mission to make the world smarter and better through data."

Today, SocialCops has built a data exchange that has myriad uses—from governments deciding healthcare allocations or a marketer pondering which villages a brand of toothpaste should be introduced. SocialCops has even partnered with Unilever for an information delivery project targeted at pregnant women. The startup has a cheap and efficient model supported by a network of over 120 non-profits which have better access to people and places otherwise hard to reach. Human sensors feed the company data on a real-time basis through its app, Collect.

Petoo

Petoo (pronounced as 'pay too', the Hindi word for gluttons), a start up in Bengaluru, uses big data analytics to predict consumer behaviour, reduce food wastage and speed up the home delivery time. IIT Kharagpur batchmates, Ritesh Dwivedy and Kumar Setu, along with IIHM alumnus and chef Abhishek Mandal, raised Rs 1.5 crore in seed funds, before launching the venture in March. The team created a sustainable home delivery model for meals.

The food is prepared at one kitchen before lunchtime, and then distributed to 13 hubs, each located two to three kilometres from each other. "The moment the order comes in, it is routed to the hub closest to the customer and gets delivered within 10 to 20 minutes," says co founder Kumar Setu, who heads marketing. Each of the delivery boys uses an application that notifies them when an order comes in. "A unique algorithm captures data like the weather, whether it's a weekend or a weekday," says Setu, "it gives us a broad estimate of the number of orders in a day, so we know how much food to make."

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